Archive for the 'Inside 3Ci' Category

Employee Profile: Tyler Frederick, Network Architect

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by
Ainsworth Boyle
on October 3, 2008
in Inside 3Ci
. 0 Comments

Tyler Frederick, of 3Ci’s New England Office, manages 3Ci’s system and network architecture. With an extensive background in telecommunications, network engineering and computer security, Tyler brings a great amount of experience to the 3Ci technology team.

Tyler began his career as a consultant assisting several telephone companies and ISPs in Massachusetts. In 2000, Tyler relocated to South Florida to take a position with CBS SportsLine. At CBS Tyler contributed network design expertise and oversaw all network security operations. Tyler has also consulted and written software for companies such as Time Warner, UMass Medical Group and the United States Secret Service.

In his free time, Tyler enjoys learning new technologies, producing music, magic & illusions, and riding ATVs. An avid aviation buff, Tyler spends his spare time flying a Cessna 172.

Tyler resides in Wilbraham, MA with his wife Emily and their daughter, Payton.

- Ainsworth Boyle

Client Profile: Playboy

Published
by
Ainsworth Boyle
on October 3, 2008
in Inside 3Ci
. 0 Comments

Playboy, one of the world’s premier brands, has chosen 3Ci to power it’s mobile division. With a presence in almost every medium, Playboy, has had huge success with their worldwide mobile. Now, Playboy plans to bring that success to the US Mobile Market, and establish a database attractive to advertisers.

Playboy

Playboy will utilize 3Ci’s self-service Content Manager to upload and manage their binary content and mobile storefront. Content Manager allows Playboy to create dynamic or static WAP links which can be inserted in any of their messaging from the Switchblade Platform.

“I’m very excited to work with the Playboy mobile team, to establish their US Mobile Database,” said Vic Shroff, 3Cinteractive VP of Channel Sales. “Their worldwide content delivery experience and brand recognition are a great compliment to our global development.

- Ainsworth Boyle

3Ci Powers Disney’s High School Musical 3 Promotion

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kdreker
on October 3, 2008
in Inside 3Ci
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3Ci has teamed up with some of the world’s leading brands to help launch one of the largest promotions in US history. In order to promote the upcoming movie High School Musical 3: Senior Year, 3Ci worked with various vendors such as MySpace, Pop2Life, and Disney to support the campaign that MySpace has called its “biggest film campaign yet”. Disney is conducting a high school spirit contest involving about 15,000 high schools across the country that includes a ground breaking mobile component.

High School Musical 3

Each participating high school has its own keyword that its students can text in to earn points for their school.  The school that earns the most points by the end of the contest wins a concert at the high school and a trip to Disney for the senior class.  3Ci’s role in the promotion was building the application that includes the 15,000 keywords, as well as providing the mobile messaging and mobile compliance support for the contest.  3Ci is also responsible for tabulating the points for the mobile voting and integration with a 3rd party reporting system.  The High School Musical contest started in early September and will run through November 2.

- Karly Dreker

Short Code Messaging vs. E-Mail Gateways

Published
by
Ainsworth Boyle
on July 3, 2008
in Inside 3Ci
. 0 Comments

Before the onset of short code messaging, marketers and consumers were able to send free messages to consumers using e-mail-to-sms gateways. This allowed users to send an e-mail to phonenumber@carrier.com that would be converted and delivered as an SMS. As you could imagine, this became a prime target for internet spammers, which led the carriers to develop robust filtering systems to protect their consumers. This was the dawn of the short code and a new process that allowed carriers to prescreen and certify legitimate mobile marketing campaigns.

As a result we now have a ubiquitous infrastructure for cross-carrier SMS messaging. As part of this project, the carriers charge fees for short code messaging, which is different than the free email gateway service, but free isn’t necessarily better; it’s far worse.

E-Mail Gateways:
- Heavily filtered and monitored by the major carriers. Each carrier systematically scans for message content and monitors volume by IP address.
- No delivery confirmation. Each message is “fire and forget” much like blast e-mail.
- No carrier information. You must know the users carrier to send through an e-mail gateway. Numbers turn over at a rate of 8% per month causing failed send attempts.
- Low throughput limit. Throughput is limited both by IP throttling and infrastructure issues.
- One-way only service. There is no interactivity or opt-in process that creates a targeted database.

The base of an effective, compliant mobile marketing program, is an opt-ed in database. This can only be accomplished through the two-way interaction offered by Short Code messaging. While short code messaging comes at a fee, it provides an interactive experience that influences the consumer. The success rates of mobile marketing campaigns are attributed to the highly targeted nature of Short Code messaging and not the broad spectrum SPAM messages from e-mail gateways.

Short Code Messaging:
- Certified and approved by aggregators. Each aggregator pre-approves message programs to ensure that all messages are delivered once the program is approved.
- Message delivery confirmation. Each message delivery status can be delivered in real-time as it is queued for delivery.
- Carrier information pre-determined before delivery. Each phone number is “dipped” for mobile carrier delivery to ensure the number is properly labeled for delivery.
- High throughput limit. Throughput is not limited by short code allowing messages to be delivered faster.
- Two-way interactive service. Users can text-in or reply to mobile marketing campaigns creating a more enjoyable end-user experience.

While e-mail gateway services carry the appeal of “zero cost” they do little to enhance or activate a brand’s current marketing initiatives. Instead, e-mail gateway messaging becomes an extension to a traditional e-mail marketing campaign. In contrast, a well structured Short Code campaign functions to both independently engage users or activate existing traditional marketing campaigns.

- Ainsworth

How to Launch Your iPhone SDK Application

Published
by
Ainsworth Boyle
on June 9, 2008
in Inside 3Ci and Marketing
. 0 Comments

A new wave of the cell phone market has begun: the release of the iPhone SDK. While there has been a small market for mobile based applications, entirely new companies, some supported by KPCB’s $100 million iFund, will be spawned to produce iPhone supported applications. While the actual extent of this marketplace is still unclear, it still hits with the same sincerity that something is happening in the mobile world. I’d bet it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Mobile marketing and mobile content distribution functions at a more powerful level than electronic newsletter subscriptions. Undoubtedly, electronic newsletter subscriptions are key to maintaining close access to former customers, current customers, and future customers. At the touch of a button, businesses can easily deliver news to the e-mail boxes of subscribers. Therefore, users are receiving their content when you need them to, and not when they stumble upon it, many weeks later - if ever.

The truth is, those were valuable, back when users were subscribed to a select few lists and were more open to mass e-mails. Now users are opting out of these newsletters or driving them to their junk box; this brings new value to the RSS feed, allowing users to have yet another method to cleanly manage information they wanted to read while sparing their inboxes. While, the RSS reader is still increasing in value, it does not hit the key point of business marketing: reliably pinging your audience at the crucial moment - the tipping point.

Don’t forget: the iPhone has SMS!
Continue reading ‘How to Launch Your iPhone SDK Application’

Introducing the 3Cinteractive Blog…

Published
by
Ainsworth Boyle
on April 18, 2008
in Inside 3Ci
. 0 Comments

Mobile marketing is the next wave of information technology, but this wave is beyond the unprecedented statistics of response rates and highly targetable databases. Mobile is becoming a requirement for the continued development of user content websites. 3Cinteractive provides a level of service, support, and technology between content providers and the wireless consumers. This position gives us a unique perspective on the development of mobile marketing. The 3Cinteractive Blog is our way of publishing that knowledge, providing our analysis, and having a little fun.

Over the life of this blog, you will hear from several members of our team. Each member of the 3Cinteractive team prides themselves in their particular area of expertise, and I will make sure their voice is heard. As in any growing field, our team is always moving, so I’ve huddled up a small group of regular contributers to keep us moving. Here they are… in order of age (or wisdom).

J. Ainsworth Boyle, Editor and New Media: I will be the most regular contributer to this blog. The majority of my input will draw connections between web trends and mobile trends. I will also cover news events in both of these industries and provide insight from a consumer’s perspective.

Jeff Michaud, Creative Director.
John Duffy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer.

Upcoming Articles:
- 10 Ways Brands Use Mobile
- What Do 58 Million US Mobile Subscribers Have in Common?
- 7 Reasons WAP is Flawed
- Why Websites Can’t Save Radio
- Mobile 101: Understanding Universal Keywords
Continue reading ‘Introducing the 3Cinteractive Blog…’

3Cinteractive Announces David Ross as New Chairman

Published
by
Ainsworth Boyle
on March 24, 2008
in Inside 3Ci
. 0 Comments

Boca Raton, FL (PRWEB) – 3/24/2008 – South Florida radio executive and media promotions innovator, David Ross, recently joined 3Ci as an investor and Board Chairman. Mr. Ross, a well respected and successful radio and media visionary will help guide the mobile marketing service provider’s new media efforts, merging traditional advertising media and values with new interactive mobile technology.

Mr. Ross entered the radio broadcasting business in 1972 as an advertising executive and moved into station, cluster and group management; setting the trail as one of the first radio consolidators. During his 36 year media career David created, built and operated clusters of radio stations around the world, including legendary Top 40 powerhouse, Y-100 in Miami. His innovative promotional style and use of cutting edge technology has been a key driver towards the tremendous success rate of his operations. Ross’s consultation into 3rd world media operations has earned him a unique reputation, and is credited with building out the first privately held broadcast media in the Bahamas. His experience includes concert promotion, wireless media, and mobile.

Mr. Ross was a shareholder and partner in 14 station radio group, Metroplex Communications Inc, which was sold to Clear Channel Communications Inc. in 1994. From 1994 to March of 2006, he served as an officer in the public company known as Clear Channel Worldwide, operating a highly successful division of 32 radio stations and a marketing / concert promotion company.

“We are very excited to have David join our company” said John Duffy, 3Ci’s CEO and Founding Partner. “Our technology allows brands to engage 250+ million consumer’s in the US. Mobile marketing is in the process of becoming a direct extension of traditional marketing methods and David will help guide us as 3Ci continues to support agencies and brands in the form of an advertising support agency. His role as Chairman includes the creation of an all star advisory board consisting of a diverse group of top banking, media, sports and business executives chartered to help guide the company and its management team through the rapidly changing and dynamic world of wireless, where 3Ci is experiencing dramatic growth.”

“I strongly believe that mobile marketing is quickly becoming the most personal, unique and cost effective way for brands, media companies and advertisers to establish direct interactions with consumers” said Mr. Ross. According to Mr. Ross, “3Ci has developed a powerful and yet easy to use mobile technology platform and I am very excited to invest in the company and join the team. 3Ci’s goal will be to become a mainstream new media solutions provider in the mobile marketing space, providing more than a technology platform. Our executive management team has a plethora of diverse experience including telecommunications, financial transaction processing, IVR, and traditional media. The result is a one-stop “boutique” approach to demystify the mobile echo-system, providing “partnerships” with our client base. No other US application service provider has this breadth of experience.”

About 3Cinteractive
Based in Boca Raton, Florida, 3Cinteractive is one of the fastest growing mobile application service providers (MASP) in the United States. The Company’s simple building block approach to mobile marketing enables its clients to “mobilize” their brands, content and systems. The 3Ci service portfolio includes SMS text messaging, application development, campaign and compliance management, content delivery, and IVR integration. The company also provides turn-key media solutions, media consulting, including the representation and sale of mobile marketing units. 3Ci is a Mobile Marketing Association Member and is listed as one of the top Application Service Providers by the Common Short Code Administration (CSCA). 3Cinteractive was founded by experienced technology professionals and represents the leading edge in interactive telecommunications.